An Overview on Major Design Constraints, Impact and Challenges for a Conventional Wastewater Treatment Design

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages: 7-16

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

https://doi.org/10.47277/JETT/9(1)16

An Overview on Major Design Constraints, Impact

and Challenges for a Conventional Wastewater

Treatment Design

Saidur R Chowdhury *, Feras Alhelal , Mohammad Alahmadi , Naif Alqahtani , Abdullah

Alkhaldi , Andi Asiz

Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU), Al khobar, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Consolidated Engineering Company, Khatibalami, Khobar, King Faisal Road. KSA

Civil Engineering Department, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU), Al khobar, Saudi Arabia

Received: 08/07/2020

Accepted: 04/09/2020

Published: 20/12/2020

Abstract

The conventional wastewater (WW) treatment plant includes physical, chemical, and biological treatment processes that can protect the

receiving water bodies from water pollution. The common design constraints, challenges as well as environmental impact would make the

wastewater treatment plant’s (WWTP) construction and operation more complex and demanding tasks. Major project constraints for WW

plant design are economics, accessibility, fulfilling technical requirements, institutional set-up, health and environment, personnel capacity,

and political commitment etc. Design methodology adopted in the current study included project location, unit selections, the design capacity,

design period as well as proximity to the population and layout plan. The present manuscript discussed briefly about effluent quality

requirements, design issues, environmental impacts, details, and safety concerns. It also highlighted the necessary flexibility to carry out the

treatment satisfactorily within the desired range of influent WW characteristics and flows. In the present study, every step of the design was

verified with Environmental Regulations and suggested to overcome all constraints while designing WWTPs so that standard operational

code for the specific region could be implemented to achieve the best treatment performance. The results obtained from analytical calculation

were optimized to achieve the best design parameters for field application. The optimized values also reduce the construction and operation

cost during the field application.

Keywords: Wastewater (WW), Challenges, Constraints, Design, Impact, Treatment, Plant

depending on the resources’ availabilities (7). The conventional

Introduction

steps include primary, secondary to tertiary treatment (1). Primary

treatment considers as the first step of WW treatment. Many

advanced WWTPs located in the developed countries started with

primary treatment and then equipped with other treatment units as

increasing wastewater loads and the requirement to produce clean

water prior to final disposal into receiving bodies (7). The

treatment also increases the production of treated water for

agriculture and other developments. Primary treatment is used to

reduce suspended and floating solids from raw WW. This level

can be defined as mechanical or physical treatment, although

chemicals are often applied to complete the sedimentation process

Wastewater (WW) treatment plant is very important as any

other necessary facility for constructing a sustainable city.

Domestic wastewater treatment consists of various units to

remove different types of contaminants from WW (1-3). It

includes physical, chemical, and biological treatment processes

that can protect the receiving water bodies from water pollution,

make recycled water as well as reduce the volume of sewage

water and sludge (4). Environmental benefits from WW include

safer and more stable healthy aquatic ecosystems and reduce

amount of wastewater released into the environment without any

treatment (5). Any wastewater treatment provides an opportunity

for sustainable solution to some aspects of the water scarcity

problem (6). The proper management of wastewater develops the

sustainable and healthy environment (5). The common design

constraints, challenges as well as environmental impact would

make the WW treatment plant’s construction and operation more

complex and demanding tasks. WW treatment contains a series of

steps that can have increasing effectiveness and complexity

(

8). Primary treatment can reduce the biochemical oxygen

demand (BOD ) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the

incoming wastewater by 25-50% (8-9). During primary treatment,

the total suspended solids are removed by approximately 50-70%

as well as 65% removal could be achieved for oil and grease (9).

Secondary to tertiary treatment applies to purify wastewater more

and can also act as a resource recovery unit (7).

Corresponding author: Saidur R Chowdhury, Civil Engineering Department, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University (PMU), Al-khobar,

Saudi Arabia. E-mail: schowdhury1@pmu.edu.sa

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages: 7-16

The production and maintenance cost of treated water exceeds

that of potable water in many regions of the world where sources

of fresh water supply are plentiful. However, introduction to

innovative technology in the water industry, the reclaimed water

is usually sold to citizen at a cheaper rate to encourage it’s use (7).

Ouda (7) further reported that fresh water supplies to the

community would be inadequate due to increased population

demands, or unplanned urbanization, and reducing clean water

sources. In addition, using reclaimed water for non-potable uses

save potable water for drinking, since less potable water is used

for non-potable uses such as irrigation. Every human being uses

the water in different way such as domestic, agriculture, and

industrial or even for drinking. In the present study, design

constraints, environmental impacts, costs and few challenges

were highlighted to develop any conventional treatment plant in

any newly developed cities. The outcome of the present study was

extracted from the student capstone project in the civil

engineering department at Prince Mohammad bin Fahd

University (PMU) in Saudi Arabia. The study explored the

processes to complete any conceptual treatment design within

limited resources. In the present study, a large area in Al Firdous

District under Jubail Industrial City in Eastern Province was

selected to develop a sustainable new housing district. This new

district includes houses, commercial complexes, multi-storey

building, and gas stations. It is expected that in addition to the

current volume of wastewater, a significant amount of wastewater

would be generated from the area in the near future. If this

wastewater would be discharged into the environment without

treatment, it could be a severe threat to the public health and

hazard to the environment. Thus, the proposed wastewater

treatment plant within the new districts can help to reduce the

pressure on the existing wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in

Jubail Industrial City in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

The present study aimed to design a wastewater treatment

plant to serve the community. The scope and objectives of the

study were to evaluate major design constraints, impact and

challenges while designing any conventional WW treatment

plants. The manuscript also included the required consideration

for plant construction site, the degree of effluent quality, design

issues and details, outfalls, important facilities and common

safety issues. The study also calculated volume of WW to be

generated during the design period of 25 years; to develop the

conceptualized design for the primary and secondary wastewater

treatment units (based on the estimated wastewater); to assess the

environmental impact of the proposed wastewater plant. The

present study also verified major design requirement and

consideration for successful WW plant operations. Till to date,

very few studies have investigated constraints, impact and

challenges for a conventional WW treatment plant design. This

was one of the studies that focused on the basic information

necessary to overcome the design constraint, sustainability and

key challenges for constructing conventional WW treatment plant

within newly developed cities under different environmental

conditions.

WW, applying standard practices for the necessary design

parameters and optimizing design parameters based on applicable

constraints and regulations. A proposed WWTP project intended

to be located in Al Firdous District of Jubail Industrial City was

used as the main vehicle for analyzing and synthesizing design

information, process, and optimization. In the study, all analytical

calculations for different design parameters were optimized by

MS Excel Solver for verification and Justification.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was evaluated by

field visits and document study. The results of EIA for the

proposed project were verified and contrasted with the recent

design practices. Important information about the project site and

existing environmental condition was discussed with the Local

City Corporation and stakeholder to ensure its feasibility. All

observations and design constraints were identified, compared,

verified as well as provided justification for solution by the

investigators. Design steps were evaluated based on applicable

theories, expert opinion, site condition, and optimum standard

values. At the end, all potential challenges were summarized in

this study and their possible solutions were discussed. The

manuscripts also listed some important considerations to

successfully complete any WWTP design that could fit with site

condition for a newly developed plant.

WW Project Constraints and operational code

Sustainable development provides a good standard of living

in any society. It can facilitate important solutions to the financial,

environmental, and societal challenges without causing a hazard

to human and environmental issues. Environmental protection

and conservation of natural water body consider design

requirement and design consideration significantly while any

sustainable development in environmental sector takes place.

Water pollution from wastewater discharges may vary depending

on their types, sources and strength. These wastewaters entered

into the natural water body through various channel can cause a

great concern to community. The conventional WW treatment can

reduce this problem. Prior to constructing WW plant, numerous

constraints need to be checked for sustainability. Any design

constraint for WW project means the list of problems that are

counted to overcome prior to the final design approval in case of

successful construction and plant operation. Major project

constraints for wastewater plant design (WWTP) are economics,

accessibility, health and environment, prevailing wind direction,

suitability of hydrogeological condition, fulfilling technical

facilities, institutional set-up and personnel capacity and

policy/political commitment etc.

Another major constraint for wastewater treatment plant is

enforcement of standards’ monitoring. The design capacity for

wastewater plant should be such that the treated effluent would

continuously meet accepted quality criteria that can reduce any

risk. WWT related risk occurs due to the failure to meet

established standards at source (i.e. WW treatment outflow); not

complying standard operation procedure (SOPs); lack of qualified

employees to monitor treatment facilities; ineffective monitoring

of WW reuse system; absence of skilled personnel; lack of proper

monitoring equipment; and expensive operation and monitoring

costs (Ministry of the Environment 2008) (10).

Study Methodology

The methodology used in the study included: by reviewing

and verifying literatures on WWTP design, recent site rela